With club football taking a break this weekend, all eyes have turned to the international stage as Europe’s top players aim to drive their countries through the next round of World Cup qualifiers. Hopeful nations clashed across the continent giving some of the biggest names in Europe a chance to impress on the grand stage.
With so may top players in action over the weekend, we’ve picked out five of the best who impressed during this round of fixtures.
1Cristiano Ronaldo – Portugal
Ronaldo marked his Portugal return in spectacular style on Friday night when he scored four goals in a 6-0 demolition of Andorra. It was his first international match since being injured in the Euro 2016 final, which his country won 1-0.
The Real Madrid man scored twice in the opening four minutes to put his side in cruise control. The captain rounded off his hat-trick two minutes after the half-time before adding a fourth midway into the second half.
Andorra clearly had no idea about how to deal with the European champions and had two players sent off in the space of 10 minutes for fouls on talisman Ronaldo. The forward took his international goals tally to 65 in 134 games. With only one victory in the qualifying round, Portugals now sit third behind Switzerland and the Faroe Islands.
